NEC develops 0.3mm thick organic battery

Organic batteries are an exciting area of research at the moment due to the benefits and potential they have to power our gadgets in the future. One of the companies at the forefront of organic battery development is NEC, which has been working on these polymer-based batteries since 2001 and had its first major release in 2005.

Organic batteries are desirable because they have a very high energy density considering their size, use no heavy metals, and are incredibly thin. That last feature is highlighted by NEC’s latest breakthrough, which has seen the creation of a 0.3mm thick organic radical battery.

Such a thin battery can be placed inside objects that are already very limited in thickness, for example, a sheet of e-paper, and of course a smart card or credit card. Until now the thickness was limited to 0.7mm, but NEC managed to cut that by over 50% all thanks to printed components.

The prototype battery was created by printing an integrated circuit and battery directly on to a polymer film. Such components allowed for a complete system to be built including a display, antenna, and encryption system. All of which sounds like the perfect solution for next-generation smart cards.

As for the power on offer from this super-thin battery, output is rated as 5kW/L with a capacity of 3mAh. In real terms that means the integrated display can be refreshed 2,000x, or the antenna can be used to transmit data 35x before a recharge is required. The recharge only takes around 30 seconds to top up the battery fully, and the capacity is only reduced by 25% after 500 charges.